


Hurricane Byron

by imamaryanne



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Gen, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-23
Updated: 2013-07-23
Packaged: 2017-12-21 03:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/895130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imamaryanne/pseuds/imamaryanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On their last night in Sea City, the triplets sneak out of the house. Once a bottle of rum is emptied Jordan and Adam are surprised to learn a few facts about their unassuming brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hurricane Byron

**Author's Note:**

> Written late at night and in the throes of insomnia. Unbeta'ed. All errors are my own.

The meteorologists were predicting a fairly rough hurricane coming in to Sea City, NJ within the next few days. Dee and John had decided to pack up two days early and head home before the storm hit.

The triplets had only one more chance to sneak out at night before leaving the next day. Though the rain hadn’t started, the wind was howling when Adam eased the bedroom window open.

“I’m not covering for you,” Nicky said coldly from under his covers. He was annoyed that the triplets, even Byron, wouldn’t let him come along. “If mom and dad come in, I’m telling them you snuck out.”

“But are you going to go running to them as soon as we’re out? Going to go tattle on us?” Jordan asked, a threat in his voice.

Nicky sighed and looked to the side, “No,” he admitted. “But if they come in, I’m telling them that you snuck out.”

“Fine,” Byron said. “That’s fine.”

“You owe me,” Nicky said.

“The hell we do,” Jordan rolled his eyes.

“No, he’s right.” Byron said. He walked over to Nicky and whispered something quietly in his ear.

Nicky smiled, “Really?” he asked Byron.

Byron nodded, “I promise.”

Nicky glanced at Adam and Jordan, their hair blowing in the wind coming through the open window. “All right,” he said happily. “I definitely won’t tell them.”

Adam stepped out the window onto the roof of the front porch, followed by Jordan and then Byron. The wind was especially strong up on the roof, and they had to lean into it to make it to the edge.  Adam looked over, “I think the trellis looks strong enough, but we should go one at a time,” he said quietly.

Jordan and Byron couldn’t hear well over the wind, but Adam was too afraid to raise his voice any louder, for fear of waking their parents, currently asleep in the room immediately perpendicular to the trellis.

Again, Adam went first, carefully finding his footing before hoisting himself backward off the edge of the porch. As he disappeared from view, Byron and Jordan peeked over the edge and saw him climbing down as easily as if the trellis was a painter’s ladder. Jordan went next, followed by Byron, who shimmied down and jumped the last couple feet from the trellis onto the ground with a soft thud.

“Where are we going?” Jordan asked, “Hanging out at the boardwalk?”

“Nah,” said Byron. “Wait here, I’ve got something for us.”

Jordan and Adam watched curiously as Byron snuck to the side of the house where rows of flip-flops were lined up with beach bags stuffed with toys and several coolers.

Byron reached into one cooler and began digging around. He pulled out three bottles of coke and handed them off to Jordan who looked curiously at Byron. Byron turned his back and plunged his arm deep into the cooler and came up with a bottle of rum.

Adam’s eyes lit up, “No way!”

“Yeah,” Byron whispered excitedly. He reached up on the next shelf and found a blanket and three clean sports bottles, “Here. We can drink from these.” He began walking, Jordan and Adam staring at Byron in amazement. He turned around, “C’mon. Let’s go to the beach!”

Adam and Jordan glanced at each other for a moment, smiled, then followed Byron down toward the water.

By the time they’d caught up to him, Byron already had the blanket spread out just feet from where the water would reach on the largest waves. And the waves were much larger than they’d ever seen at Sea City before, courtesy of the upcoming hurricane.

“Okay, Byron,” Adam said, “Out with it. Where’d you get the hooch?”

Byron smiled, but was quiet for a moment as he began passing out the sports bottles. The triplets filled their bottles partially full with coke, then Byron opened the rum, and they all added some to their Coke. Byron plopped down on the blanket and looked out at the ocean, “You know those guys, Toby and Alex? They always stay at the house down the street the same weeks we’re here?”

“Yeah,” Jordan said, nodding.

Byron shrugged, “I hung out with Alex a little the other day. He bought it for me.”

“He’s twenty-one?”

“Well, no. He’s twenty, but according to his ID, he’s twenty-two year old Aaron Lewis Anderson of Boston, Massachusetts."

“Nice,” Adam said nodding his head in approval. “So this is why you were so keen on us sneaking out tonight?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Byron answered, drinking deeply from the sports bottle.

“I didn’t know you had it in you, Byron,” Jordan said, managing to sound both snide and appreciative at the same time.

Byron raised his eyebrows, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“Oh, like what?”

“Like nothing.” Byron took his drink and walked to the edge of the water, allowing the waves to crash up to his ankles.

Adam and Jordan joined him by his side, “Remember when we were kids and you were scared of the ocean?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah,” Byron said, smiling. “I still don’t love it. I hate when seaweed wraps around your ankle, or you step on something sharp or something squishy.” Byron shivered, “It’s gross."

The three stood still, allowing the tide to bury their feet in rough sand, and continuing to drink. Adam went back to the blanket and brought back more rum and cokes for refills.

It wasn’t long before both Adam and Jordan were slurring their words and getting loud and, as Byron thought, obnoxious.  They ventured further into the ocean, loudly splashing each other. “C’mon, Byron!” Adam called laughing as he kicked a jet of salt water toward Jordan, making it looked as though Jordan has pissed himself.

Byron laughed, “No, thanks, you two go ahead.” He couldn’t believe how little alcohol it had taken to get his brothers drunk.  And even though he was no longer scared of the ocean, the waves were higher and stronger than they normally were and he kind of felt like he needed to keep an eye on an increasingly inebriated Adam and Jordan.

Finally Adam and Jordan came stumbling out of the ocean soaking wet and their bottles empty. They all went up the shore to the blanket where Byron gave them all yet another refill. Jordan and Adam flopped down and started drinking again.

“Aren’t you drunk yet, Byron?” Adam asked.

“Not really,” he paused. “A little buzzed maybe.”

“How can you not be drunker?” Jordan wondered. “You never drink! You didn’t even come with us to that party of Haley’s that got busted.”

Byron rolled his eyes at Jordan, “I knew that party was going to get busted. You can’t have a party that big, and let everyone in school know your parents are away without it getting busted. Anyone who did go to the party is an idiot.”

“Thanks,” Adam said dryly but still laughing. “But still, Jordan and I are a lot drunker than you are. What’re you doing? Not putting any rum in your’s?”

Byron laughed, “I’ve got just as much rum as you guys have. I’m just holding it better.” He took a deep swig and felt his head begin to spin just slightly.

“So are you a secret alcoholic?” Jordan asked.

“A what?” Byron asked, laughing a little. “A secret alcoholic?”

“Yeah,” Jordan nodded. “You hide out in your and Nicky’s room and you get secretly drunk.”

“Actually, I get drunk every Saturday night.”

Adam and Jordan took a moment to let this register before Adam said, giggling, “No you don’t! You play Dungeons and Dragons at Sean Addison’s house every Saturday night.”

Byron smiled sideways, “We call it D&D&D. Drunken Dungeons & Dragons.”

“Both of those Addison kids are so fucked up,” Jordan said with authority.

“Nah, they’re OK. They just have shitty parents, which is basically how we’re able to get drunk in their basement every weekend. They never come down to check on us. As long as we’re quiet and don’t disturb them, they leave us alone. When they’re actually home, that is.”

“Holy.....” Jordan looked at Byron with a mixture of surprise and admiration. “So you’re telling me you come home drunk every Saturday night and mom and dad never catch on?”

Byron smiled and waggled his eyebrows, “I told you there were things you didn’t know about me.”

“Are there other things we don’t know?”

“Sure.”

“Like what? What else goes on at D&D&D besides drinking?”

“Dungeon and Dragons,” Byron explained, deadpan.

“Who plays with you?”

“Me, Sean, Tim Hsu, and Norman Hill always. Sometimes Sean’s sister Corrie plays, and when she does she usually brings along Charlotte Johannsen.  That’s what I told Nicky up in the room, that if he covers for us, he can come with me Saturday because Charlotte will be there.”

“Does Nicky know he has, like, zero percent chance with Charlotte?” Jordan asked.

“Let him dream,” Byron said.

“Can we come sometime?” Jordan asked.

“Fuck, no.” Byron answered immediately.

Adam and Jordan looked positively affronted. “Why not?” they asked simultaneously.

“Because it’s Dungeons and Dragons,” Byron said. “You have no interest in D&D, and you’d be loud and get us in trouble, and you’d find out that Sean’s parents are only even home about half the time and blab to the whole school, and before you know it, there’d be seventy kids there and it would get busted and I would lose my Saturday nights."

“We wouldn’t,” Jordan promised.

“How do you play D&D?” Byron demanded.

Jordan shrugged, “You roll and dice and nerd out over dragons and elves and trolls and whatever. Dungeons and stuff.” Adam laughed loudly.

“Nice. No fucking way you’re coming.”

Jordan pouted, “I really don’t want to, anyway. You may get to drink, but you probably have to to get through that game.”

“Very funny.”

“You do anything else besides drink and play D&D?” Adam said, stumbling to the side. “Shit, I’d better sit down,” he mumbled falling to the ground.

Byron’s head felt light and he smiled, “Maybe,” he said coyly. This was interesting to Byron. Adam was a laughing and silly drunk, but Jordan was kind of a sniping mean drunk. Byron knew what kind of drunk he was - he got talkative when he drank too much. He always said too many things, gave away too many things. Like that time Sean got up to use the bathroom and Byron turned to Norman and told Norman he was being too obvious about ogling Sean. Norm hadn’t come out to any of them, but Byron was observant and had drunkenly, accidentally, outed Norm to the rest of their friends. Or the time he’d told Charlotte how much Nicky loved her. Or all those times he came home drunk and got to bed and told Nicky everything that had gone on that night. Byron suddenly realized that maybe drinking with Jordan and Adam wasn’t that great an idea.

“Maybe?” Jordan asked, “What do you, get high also? Stoner Byron with his nerd stoner friends?”

Byron shrugged, “Sometimes,” he said, wondering to himself _why_ he was even telling them this.

“Wait, _what_?” Jordan asked. “I was kidding.”

“I’m not,” Byron shrugged.

“You get high?”

“Eh. Not often. But Corrie’s friends with that guy, Bennie Ott. He’s a pot-dealer and she gets some weed from him sometimes.”

Jordan and Adam glanced at each other then back to Byron. “Holy shit, Byron.” Jordan said. “Drinking and drugs? What are you going to tell us next - that you snort coke off the tits of a dead hooker?”

“Who says she’s dead?” Byron asked. Jordan and Adam stared at him with matching open mouths. “I’m kidding!” he said holding his hands up in surrender. “There is no coke and no hookers!”

“But...but...” Jordan seemed to be at a loss for words. “Nobody knows that you guys drink. Everyone thinks that you’re a bunch of virgin nerds.”

Byron shrugged, “Who cares? Let them think whatever. We don’t drink or smoke a little pot to impress anyone. We do it because we’re with a really good, safe group of friends. We do it because we can’t go to parties and do it because we’re introverts. And if people think that makes us nerdy,” Byron shrugged again, “We can be nerdy.”

“But mom and dad have never found out!” Adam pointed out again.

“Yeah,” Byron said. “I’m good like that. That’s what happens when you have nerdy friends and don’t go out to parties that are obviously going to get busted.”

“Oh, man,” Jordan threw his now-empty bottle to the ground. “I’m wasted and I just can’t handle this.”

Byron laughed, “It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal,” Jordan muttered. He was really starting to slur. “Next thing I know you’ll be telling me you lost your virginity before I did.”

“When did you lose your’s?” Byron asked.

Jordan glared at Adam, who had burst out laughing, “He hasn’t yet!” Adam said, laughing so hard he was bent over.

Byron looked mystified, “Why’s that funny?” he asked Adam.

Adam kept laughing while answering drunkenly, “Because I can tell by the way you look that you’ve lost your’s.  Byron lost his virginity before either of us did!” he said excitedly to Jordan.

“That’s good news?” Jordan asked.

“Good news for Byron,” Adam said.

Jordan rolled his eyes? “Who was it?” he demanded of Byron.

“Corrie,” Byron admitted.

“God, that girl is so screwed up, Byron.”

“No she’s not,” Byron said defensively. “She’s nice, and she wears black and acts weird because she’s trying to get a little bit of attention from her parents. They really don’t give a damn about her or Sean though.”

Adam was still laughing, but Jordan looked at him critically, “You’d better be careful,” he warned. “A pregnancy might really get her parents’ attention.”

Byron rolled his eyes, “We’re careful.”

Things went silent for a while as Adam and Byron drained the last of their drinks. Together, the three of them had managed to kick a bottle of rum. Suddenly, Adam started laughing again, “This is unbelievable!” He sounded genuinely, if drunkenly, happy. “Byron is someone totally different than we thought!”

Jordan scowled, “I don’t see what’s so great about it. Nicky knew about Byron being someone totally different before we knew.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist over it, Jordan,” Byron said angrily. “I didn’t have to go out and get us a bottle of rum tonight at all.”

“Why did you anyway?” Jordan asked, making the question sound like a challenge.

“I felt like it. Does it even matter why?”

Jordan and Byron stared at each other. Byron was sober enough to realize that something had passed between himself and Jordan, but he wasn’t quite sober enough to figure out exactly what it was.

The air changed. The wind switched direction and picked up a little bit. The edge of the blanket they were sitting on flipped up and flung sand in their faces. The next couple wave were bigger, stronger, and came ever closer to their beach blanket.

The howl of the wind meant that the triplets didn’t hear the beach patrol until the buggy was nearly on top of them. The police officer got off his vehicle and approached the triplets. “The beach closes down at sunset, guys,” the officer said to them. He glanced down at the empty rum, the empty cokes bottles, and the three upended sports bottles, then looked back up at them. “You guys have any ID on you?”

“No,” Byron answered for them after a brief silence.

“Where are you staying?” the officer asked.

They all pointed to the yellow gingerbread house without saying another word.

“You here with friends?” the officer asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

“Family,” Byron answered.

“Parents?” the officer asked.

The triplets glanced at each other before nodding silently.

The officer rolled his eyes. “Pick up your stuff and get home,” he ordered.

They began clearing things up. Jordan and Adam silently picking up the bottle of rum, as well as their empty drink containers, while Byron folded the blanket. They started walking toward the house, and all groaned inwardly when they saw the police officer coming along with them.

As they neared the house, they all were struck with the same thought. They had no key to  get back in. Their plan had been to climb back up the trellis and crawl through their bedroom window. Jordan, in a stupid, drunken decision, ran to the trellis and began climbing.

“Oh no,” said the officer, laughing a little at Jordan’s clumsy attempt. “I need to speak to your parents.”  They climbed the steps to the front porch and the triplets glanced at each other, clearly not wanting to be the one to knock on the door and wake their parents. The cop rolled his eyes at them, opened the screen door and knocked loudly on the wooden door.

After about thirty seconds, Vanessa answered the door. She looked tired and confused, but upon seeing the triplets standing there with a police officer, her face broke into a large grin. “Oh my God! Mom and Dad are going to kill you!” she laughed.

“Can you wake them?” the cop asked.

Vanessa bounded up the stairs with glee, obviously thrilled that her older brothers were in serious trouble. Within seconds, Dee and John came rushing down the stairs, Vanessa at their heels.

“What’s going on?” John demanded.

“Are these your boys?”

“Yes.” Dee and John answered together. Dee had a murderous look on her face.

“I found them on the beach. I think they’ve had quite a bit drink. I found them with an empty bottle of rum.”

Adam, Byron, and Jordan stood there, trying to look appropriately ashamed. Dee and John looked at them, not a bit of sympathy in their eyes. “Thank you, Officer.” Dee said, pulling her kids in further by the arm. “Do you need anything else?”

“No,” the cop said. “I’m not citing them for the underaged drinking. They really were just sitting on the beach, not causing any harm.”

“Thank you,” John said, shaking the cop’s hand. “We’ll handle them from here.” He closed the door behind the cop and turn on his three sons, “Sit,” he said nodding toward the table.

They sat without argument. Byron and Jordan had pained looks on their faces, but Adam was wearing a big goofy grin. He leaned over and hugged John, “We’re sorry, daddy.

Dee turned away, looking very much like she was trying not to laugh at Adam. John patted Adam on the back, “Sit down,” he told him.

“I don’t know what the hell you guys were thinking,” Dee started off. “Sneaking out and drinking? What if something had happened? We wouldn’t have known where you were.”

“Nothing happened,” Jordan said.

“It could have,” John pointed out. “If you guys wanted to go out, we would have let you. Your curfew would have been one o’clock.” They all glanced at the clock on the microwave oven, which read 1:13.

“So we’re only thirteen minutes late for curfew!” Adam said happily.

“What?” Dee and John asked together.

“You can’t possibly think that,” John said shaking his head. Adam just laughed.

Dee looked at Byron and frowned, “Byron, I expected more from you. This is Jordan and Adam’s second offense, but you knew to skip that party of Haley’s. I thought you had more sense.”

Adam and Jordan looked incredulously at Byron. Byron’s head was spinning, he was having trouble wrapping his mind around what his mother had just said. “Huh?” Byron finally asked, deciding to pretend he hadn’t heard her.

“There are four weeks left before school starts. Adam and Jordan, since this is your second offense, you’re grounded for the rest of the summer vacation. Byron, since this is your first offense, it’s two weeks,” John said with finality. Evidently their laid-back parenting style stopped when you’re escorted home drunk by a cop.

“No,” Byron said, noticing the murderous looks his brothers were giving him. “That’s not fair. I should be punished as much as them. I’m the one who got the alcohol,” he confessed.

Dee rolled her eyes, “No need to cover up for them, Byron.”

“I’m...not,” Byron spluttered, having difficulty forming his words. He might be drunk, and he might get a little loose-lipped while drinking, but he wasn’t about to tell his parents that he’d drunk far more frequently than either Adam or Jordan.  But at the same time, whatever Jordan’s problem had been with Byron keeping secrets, Byron wanted to show some solidarity with his brothers. He pounded his fist on the table, “God damn it! I did too, and I need to be grounded like they are.”

John and Dee glanced at each other, “We aren’t falling for that ‘All for one,’ crap anymore, boys. Byron has no need to stick up for you two,” Dee said.

Byron sucked his breath in. His parents may not have had a lot of rules, but the Pike kids were absolutely not allowed to sass their parents. And Byron had always had a pleasant relationship with them, so he’d never felt the need to sass them. But he drunkenly had decided a pleasant relationship with his identical brothers was more important. Byron licked his lips, “This is such bullshit he said,” he said viciously to his parents.

“Byron,” John said warningly.

“What?” he asked. “This is bullshit. This isn’t some kind of ‘All for One’ crap that we pulled when we were ten and wanted to get out of trouble for breaking a window. This is the truth - I’m the one who got my hands on the alcohol, but you’re too stupid to see it.”

Calling his parents stupid did the trick, “Fine.” Dee said tightly. “This is the way you want it? You’re grounded through the first week of school,” she said to Byron as she stood up and stalked up the stairs to the bedroom.

John glared at Byron, “Get to bed all of you. Hangovers won’t keep you from helping us pack up tomorrow.” He glanced up at the stairway, where Vanessa was still sitting with rapt attention, “You get back to bed too.”

They slowly made their way up the stairs, with Adam exclaiming loudly that the stairs seemed to be moving, then laughing loudly about it.

The next morning, John came into the boys’ room before nine o’clock, banging a wooden spoon on a metal pot. “Wakey-wakey, eggs and bakey!” he yelled. Nicky jumped out of bed, but the triplets all lay still, covering their ears and burying their heads in the pillows. “No getting out of helping out this morning,” he said cheerfully, pulling the sheets off the triplets one by one.

He left the room, and the triplets began getting out of bed slowly. They were quiet as they slowly worked kinks out of their bodies and rubbed their eyes and temples. Nicky was quicker to get ready, leaving the triplets alone.

“Look,” Byron said after a few moments awkward silence. “When my grounding is over, I can talk to Sean and the others about letting you guys come to D&D&D if you want.”

Adam and Jordan looked at him curiously. After a few moments, Jordan grabbed his duffel bag, hoisted it over his shoulder and walked by Byron, patting him on his shoulder on the way out, “Don’t worry about it,” he said, his voice with a tone of friendliness and apology to it, “I don’t think Dungeons and Dragon is my type of game.”


End file.
